The Harry Potter Reading Out Loud Project

I've frequently mentioned on this blog -- as well as on my parenting blog that preceded this -- that The Spouse and I had been engaged in a multi-year effort to read the entire Harry Potter series aloud to our youngest son, currently age 9.

We've been at this since 2009 and have, to date, read 2,750 pages of the seven-book series to him. Oftentimes his elder siblings join us as they're fond of listening to the tale that they've likely memorized by now because they've read the books so many times that I've lost count.

Just this week we finally finished the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (my favorite of the series) and, as soon as I said, "The End," The Youngest Boy clamored for us to immediately start the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, despite the fact that it was past his bedtime. We acquiesced because, hey, he was asking to read a book. At least he wasn't asking for TV or video games.

Given that it has taken us what feels like forever to read this series -- we try to read it a couple times a week, but don't always get a chance to do that, particularly when youth sports and school stuff is pressing on our time -- I decided to chronicle the back end of our project with a new blog page called, cleverly enough, the Harry Potter Reading Out Loud Project. When we finish our reading sessions, I'll update what page of the book we're on and what's happening so you can follow along with your favorite Potter moments.

Image credit: Amazon.com.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' Trailer Out, Looks Bleak

*Cross-posted from Notes from the Asylum*

If you’ve got Harry Potter fans in your house, mark down November 19 as the date for the release of the second-to-last film in the saga: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

I’m planning on taking my twin 12-year-olds to see it on opening weekend as this series is absolutely beloved in the Picket Fence Post house. My twins have read and re-read and analyzed the entire seven-book series countless times. The Picket Fence Post kids have dressed up for Halloween as various Hogwarts students for years. (The Eldest Boy looked eerily like Harry Potter the one year he was The Boy Who Lived for Halloween.)

The Spouse and I have read the series ourselves (me twice), and we, as a family, have been reading it aloud to our 9-year-old. (We’re a third of the way through the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.) I must admit, I’m really enjoying this reading-the-book-aloud project.

However when I watched the newly-released trailer for Part 1 of Deathly Hallows, it was rather bleak and sad, as I see Harry as one of the more tragic characters in children’s literature and the end of the sixth book/movie, literally made me cry. (No one had yet spoiled the ending for me.)

The Spouse and I went to see The Town this past weekend (which I recommend for a thoroughly entertaining two hours) and he saw a poster promoting Deathly Hallows and said it was upsetting to see the image of Hogwarts, on fire, under the heading, “It All Ends Here.” *sniff*



Will you be taking your resident Potter fans to see the Deathly Hallows?
Image credit: Warner Brothers.